Some years hence, Mr Hastings envisages a future in which the main networks are Netflix, Amazon, YouTube, HBO, assorted sports networks and only a very few existing channels that are able to thrive on the internet, including the BBC (which has its online iPlayer and a captive subscriber base thanks to Britain’s licence fee). Live sports will be delivered online in ultra-high definition. Scripted television could become still more cinematic and expensive. HBO’s “Game of Thrones” costs around $10m an hour to make. Baz Luhrmann’s “The Get Down”, six episodes of which were released on Netflix on August 12th, cost roughly the same (see article). “What does $20m-an-hour television look like?” Mr Hastings muses. Whether it is Netflix or one of its rivals that casts caution to the wind and splurges the cash will hardly occupy viewers’ minds as they lower the blinds and prepare to binge.
